Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Leaving On A Jet Plane

I
flew out of LAX the same day Paul Ciancia decided to visit. I heard about it from my office, and started
checking to see if the flight was delayed or cancelled. Magically enough, neither. The airline representative (because I wasn’t
about to believe the computer) told me there was no delay or cancellation.

C'mon. How can this guy be a crook?

My
good friend Dave was my ride, and we listened to the news the whole hour-plus
trip from Riverside to LAX. There really
wasn’t much in the way of “news” beyond what was known a few hours after the
shooting occurred, although the reporters doggedly kept repeating the
information most people already had.

What
was useful was knowing they’d shut down all ground traffic, including foot
traffic, into the airport. Dave and I
grabbed dinner and beers to kill time, and then we made another attempt at the
airport. Traffic was an utter
nightmare. As the passenger, normally
this wouldn’t have bothered me. But as a
passenger trying to make an international flight with all that entails, I was a
wreck and getting worse by the minute. I
stared at the impassable jam of cars and willed them, ala Magneto, to lift out
of our way. I used every Jedi mind trick
I knew (This is not the lane you’re looking for.) to no avail.

Eventually,
traffic was let closer to the airport, but not actually into the drop-off
zone. Taxis, however, were exempt from
this. Dave was valiant. He circled around, cut people off, forced his
way through clogged intersections, all with the grace and confidence of a young
Richard Nixon.

Me,
on the other hand, I’m a frantic Sam Kinison.

I'd LOVE to help you with your bags!

Eventually,
Dave managed to swing close enough to the blockaded airport drop-off that I
tell him to pull in close and I’ll walk in.
I take off at a semi-frantic speed-walk, with sixty-pounds of baggage
and not a wheeled hand-cart in sight. I
truck through two mile-long parking lots and another mile along the causeway
into the terminal area. Terminal 1 and
Terminal 2 are filled with people who look like me, trying to make their
flights and nervous about the whole thing.
I keep up my half-jog only to be turned around at Terminal 3 where the
shooting happened. Police and a hundred
men and women in suits and carrying walkie-talkies have the place buttoned up
tight. I have to go back to Terminal 2, around
and under to get through.

As
I’m taking the final set of stairs to the bag check-in and ticketing, this
older lady is struggling with two hundred-pound bags. She’s pulling one up a few stairs, setting it
down, and then returning the first bag, repeating the process. She looks pleading at me, and I say, “Don’t
worry, we’re going to get you to the top.”
I shoulder my duffle and scoop up her bags with what must have been
panic-fueled adrenaline.

I make
it to the top like an older version of Rocky Balboa, except panting and under
cardiovascular distress. I’m third in
line at bag check-in, soaked with sweat and only an hour before my flight.

I
assure you, this is not the best way to start a 15 hour journey by airplane.

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About Me

R.A. McCandless has been a writer both professionally and creatively for nearly two decades. He was born under a wandering star that led to a degree in Communication and English with a focus on creative writing. He is the author of the urban fantasy novel “Tears of Heaven” (EPIC Award Finalist) and “Hell Become Her” (due 2015). His short stories have appeared in “Nine Heroes: Tales of Heroic Fantasy”, “In Shambles” and “Gears, Gadgets and Steam”. He continues to research and write historical and genre fiction, battle sprinklers, and play with his three boys.